Contemporary Design (Architecture)

"Archivi del Moderno e del Contemporaneo" è un nuovo progetto di ricerca avviato da A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna con l’intento di rileggere l’opera di artisti e architetti del XX e XXI secolo attraverso lo studio sistematico degli Archivi e delle collezioni pubbliche e private. "Nel Segno di Carlo: Arte, Architettura e Città" è l'esito dell'attività di ricerca dedicata all’architetto Carlo Aymonino, promossa in collaborazione con il Politecnico di Bari e l’Università degli Studi della Basilicata, condotta da Francesco Maggiore con la supervisione scientifica di Francesco Moschini. La ricerca si fonda sullo studio dei documenti rinvenibili nei principali fondi archivistici riguardanti Carlo Aymonino (il MAXXI, l’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, il Centre Pompidou di Parigi e la stessa A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, che ne custodisce una tra le collezioni più importan- ti, costituita da disegni e progetti di medio e grande formato, olii, lettere e numerosi taccuini e quaderni di appunti autografi), e prevede ulteriori approfondimenti presso il Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione di Parma, l’Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, l’Università di Tor Vergata di Roma, che conserva la biblioteca personale di Aymonino.

Work on this project started in 1981-82 following designs prepared by István Szabó. Structurally this church was completed, but it would seem never to be occupiable, at least for 30 years. Hence the idea that this church was unfinishable. The concept being to form a church within a cube of 16x16x16 metres. This was achieved , yet shelved until 2016.

One of the most intensely debated topics in today’s design world is that of how to define
itself, what are its boundaries and where do they end? Such a broad question comes
with as equally broad opinions and views from designers, authors, experts and anyone
who has been interacted with the many facets of current design. The key text for this
essay will be Guy Julier’s publication, “The Culture of Design”, 2nd Edition 2007, where
his personal account and opinions on what contemporary design is and from what roots
it developed will be lifted, analysed and evaluated against the views of others, including
that of Penny Sparke’s from her book “An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900 to
the Present” 2nd Edition 2004. Alongside this, texts such as “Design of the 20th Century”
by Charlotte & Peter Fiell and other articles, reports and sources will be used to generate
conflicts and agreements of thought that can be used in conjunction with my own
reasoning to establish a valid conclusion on to what extent I myself agree or disagree
with such views and why.

Pubblicazione realizzata a supporto del concorso internazionale “Edifici mondo: concorso per il recupero del centro antico di Salerno” (Comune di Salerno, Salerno 1997), a cura di Andrea Morpurgo, Bernardo Secchi, Paola Viganò, Laura Mascino, Ufficio di Piano del Comune di Salerno.

La parte collinare del centro storico è caratterizzata da forti pendenze e dalla presenza di numerosi conventi eretti a partire dall'XI secolo, destinati nel tempo ad altri usi e oggi in gran parte abbandonati, definiti "Edifici Mondo" per la loro dimensione e complessità. L'are è inoltre ricca di punti panoramici e frammenti di giardini, tra cui il restaurato giardino della Minerva. Nel 1997 il Comune di Salerno ha bandito un concorso internazionale di idee con tre obiettivi:
1. Formulare ipotesi di restauro e di trasformazione d'uso dei grandi edifici abbandonati, denominati "Edifici Mondo" per la loro dimensione e complessità;
2. Spezzare l'isolamento di questa parte del centro storico e migliorarne l'accessibilità con nuovi impianti di risalita e parcheggi d'interscambio;
3. Ridisegnare lo spazio pubblico, recuperare piazze e punti d'osservazione, aprire percorsi alternativi attraverso cortili e giardini, creare le condizioni per il risanamento del tessuto edilizio minore.

Il Concorso fu vinto dal progetto degli architetti giapponesi Sejima-Nishizawa, con riconoscimenti ai progetti degli architetti Monestiroli e De Las Casas, relativo alla sistemazione della parte alta del Centro Storico con particolare riferimento ad alcuni antichi complessi edilizi (Palazzo S. Massimo, ex Conventi di S. Francesco, S. Pietro a Maiella e S. Giacomo, e Santa Maria della Consolazione, a lungo adibiti a carceri ed in seguito dismessi).

Oldenburg’s properties of third places were established almost three decades ago. In order to understand if these properties still hold and if and how ICTs changed the concept of third places, we looked at affordances and practices in nine third places in Paris. Our findings point out that most of the properties have changed and also three new ones have emerged mixing the physical and the virtual. We also provide implications for ICTs that aim at stimulating and supporting properties of third places.

A dolgozat egy 6 féléves kutatás első fázisa, melyben meghatározom azt, hogy mi tekinthető kortárs építészetnek, illetve (amennyire ezt meg lehet határozni), mikortól lehet kortárs építészetről beszélni. Ahogy a modern korszak/irányzat végét a St. Louis-i Pruitt-Igoe lakótelep felrobbantásának tekintjük, úgy létezik-e a legutolsó általánosan elfogadott építészeti korszaknak is hasonló lezárása? Ha meghatározható ezen korszak vége, akkor könnyebben és pontosabban kutatható az, hogy mit lehet újszerű építészeti eszköznek és módszernek tekinteni a kortárs építészetben. A kutatás első fázisa tehát a kortárs építészet időbeli lehatárolását kísérli meghatározni. Fontos leszögezni, hogy a XX. századtól az építészeti korszakok linearitása megszűnt, az építészeti korszakok nem egymást követő stílusok vonulata. A kortárs építészetet a mainstream vezető országok és régiók vonatkozásában értelmezem, tehát Nyugat-Európa, Észak-Amerika és Japán vezető építész irodáit vizsgálom.

Addressing the voluminous and multifarious expressions of architecture and spirituality is a daunting task. Consequently, three focused perspectives inform our discussion. The first con­ siders the "objecthood" of architecture-the functional, typological, and material ways that buildings express and facilitate spiritualiry. Second, the phenomenological dimension of spiritual settings is addressed, including bodily experiences and feelings produced by. interactions with buildings. Third, are considerations of the cultural and social aspects of architecture, visa -vis spiritualiry, and its ethical, communicative, and symbolic fi.111ctions. These three positions align with the fundamental ways human reality unfolds: first person, individual, internal, or subjective reality (I, me); second person, collective, dialogical, or intersubjective reality (you, we, us); and third-person, empirical, external, or objective reality (it). A number of impulses define contemporary spirituaL...

Il volume raccoglie in maniera organica e sistematica quindici anni di lavoro progettuale e di elaborazioni critiche. Semplice lineare complesso è il modo in cui la configurazione architettonica si propone nello spazio. Attraverso la lettura orientata di sessanta progetti il volume intende approfondire il problema del rapporto configurazione dimensione, delle relazioni, cioè, tra oggetto architettonico e contesto urbano e territoriale, o, più semplicemente, tra architettura e città.

In the early 1980s the Australian city of Melbourne asserted its cultural authority with a redesigned city square. To complete the new urban architecture, Ron Robertson-Swann created Vault. Soon exiled to the urban periphery, Robertson-Swann's sculpture/architecture became a device for exploration of place and identity. Through the history of Vault and its architectural and artistic reception, this article inquires into who defines the boundaries of urban architectural discipline, authority, and identity.

In the framework of Cultura 2000 – Education and Culture, European Union Programme, a first project named “Terra Incognita – Conservation of European Earthen Architecture” was approved and implemented in 2006-2007. The project provided a general state of the art concerning earthen architecture, particularly in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. A referenced publication was edited with two scientific books focused on discovering and preserving a common heritage (Guillaud, 2008) (1). With the conclusion of the project, it became relevant to complete an assessment of the state of art of earthen architecture in the European Union, but also to promote initiatives to raise public awareness for earthen architecture, its heritage and its current applications. These aims provided the need for the development of a new project untitled “Terra InCognita – Earthen Architecture in Europe”. The project was approved in the framework of Cultura Programme 2007-2013. It started in November 2009 and wa...

This work was originally written as my doctoral dissertation in Budapest, Hungary. It was supervised by Zorán Vukoszávlyev, and was defended successfully at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Budapest in 2014. My years of research were highly inspired by the theoretical works of Pope Benedict XVI, Uwe Michael Lang and Miklós Földváry. I was most encouraged when the Centre for the Study of Religion at Eötvös Loránd University, together with the fellows of Juventutem, took note of my works and requested me to publish the dissertation in book form. This turning point in my decade of research has led to this current endeavour to share my findings with a wider audience.
“The Lord enters His Sanctuary”: Contemporary Roman Catholic Church Architecture in the Light of the Liturgy concerns contemporary church architecture mainly in Southern, Western, and Central Europe, and focuses on the studies of this architecture over the past twenty five years. Although the scientific publications together with the architectural case studies were integral parts of my research, this book—going off the track of descriptive architectural analyses—concentrates on the raison d’être of church architecture: the liturgical space. This method is grounded in the contemporary approach to discussing architectural concepts in international circles, and is also influenced by the seminal work of Rudolf Schwarz (German architect, 1961–1987), which unified design praxis and scientific agency with religious confession. A church may only be understood through an ongoing liturgy, and consequently, we may get a deeper insight into the spatial concepts of some notable architects only in the light of the 20th century reform movements, wherewith the architects—consciously or not—were undoubtedly affected by the salient achievements of these movements.
One of the greatest challenges of today’s church architecture is the re-authentication process, which following the intentions of Pope Benedict XVI (2005–2013) and the spread of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, has ended an uncertain epoch after the Second Vatican Council. The re-invention of the energising power of the sacrificial act, the inner dynamism of the liturgy and its hierarchic structure have inspired new spatial models; church-complexes extended with new social functions have gained a new urban importance. Such dynamism, the play of blocks and voids, or the alteration of colours and textures, derive from the essence of liturgy, whilst the static spatial concept comes from two sources: the monastic traditions, and the ressourcement’s ideals on puritanism. Balance and tradition prove to be the greatest ordeals of the present times: a synthesis of, or choice between, the architectural analogies of longitudinal and central spaces, devotion and community, hierarchy and equality.

This paper aims to analyse the architectural elements and spatial concept of  Bruder Klaus Fieldchapel, which was defined by Peter Zumthor as “a worship space and not a consecrated church in a clerical mind”, in order to determine its role in the history of the religious architecture. The building was analysed using two approaches, the sensual image and the spatial experience, to which Zumthor pays attention through his design process in general.
The exterior mass of the chapel is a large, solid monolith with strict and sharp lines. Standing still in the middle of the wheatfields, it has the typical characteristics of a landmark. Thus, with its image like a menhir, which is one of the most ancient worshipped images of the mankind, it creates the centre inviting the visitor to approach, circumambulate and explore.
In the interior, the oculus constitutes the spatial concept of the chapel. Meaning “ Eye of  God” and first used on the Pantheon, oculus emerged often in the designs of churches with a central plan in the second half of the 20th century. There is a close relationship particularly between this chapel and the Baptism Chapel of the Neu-Ulm St. Johann Baptist Church by Dominikus Böhm in terms of using the oculus, striated walls and placement of the water basin.
Spatial experience of the journey from the exterior to the core of the chapel is similar to the spatial sequence of the Pantheon. In general, it is based on mystification and the dualities of sharp-organic, light-dark, smooth-striated between the interior and exterior experiences of the building.
With all its characterisctics analyzed through the paper, Bruder Klaus Fieldchapel has a close link to the history of religious architecture, although it has a single space and no liturgical items.

Purpose
Ingels, who was influenced by Darwin, designs new mutants by developing prototypes. This study, it is aimed to scrutinize the public space alternatives proposed for the 21st-century city through the comparative analysis of the stepped pixelated buildings, one of the mutants of the architect. It has been how much questioned the stages, which offer a public space proposal, in the stepped pixelated buildings allow urban dialogue.
Design/Methodology/Approach
While Ingels' design philosophy constitutes the conceptual approach of the study, this study is prepared by using the architect's discourse, interviews, videos, digital texts, and literature studies. In this context, the repetitive examples that the architect defines as mutation and adaptation are classified. The stepped pixels in this classification are the main subject of this study. Ingels' pixelated buildings; Suitable human scale, the language of mass and form, relationship between human and space, the suggestion of space for experience, public space concept, dialogue spaces were discussed based on architect's approach.
Findings
Ingels went in the way of dividing the object through pixels when designing macro-scale structures. Thus, he made the big picture more understandable and perceptible. He tried to achieve the human scale with the gradual pixels rising from the ground level. In this way, Ingels' pixels buildings have transformed themselves into an experiential part of urban.
Research Limitations/Implications
These parameters were evaluated under four dwelling buildings of the stepped pixel in the case study (Lego Tower, Mountain Dwellings, King Street West, 79 & Park).
Social/Practical Implications
At this research, it is foreseen that the new living space suggestions consisting of stepped pixels designed by Ingels will undergo different mutations and come up with new urban alternatives in the future.
Originality/Value
Pixelated dwellings, one of the mutations of Ingels, who constantly draws attention to the problem of not integrating the buildings into the city in today's architecture, have been analysed and evaluated in the context of urban alliterations. In this way, research, a first in its field is important in terms of opening to discuss the alternative urban living spaces proposed by the architect for 21st-century architecture in the contemporary architectural environment.

The book "Crafts in Interior Architecture: India, 1990 onwards” by Rishav Jain critically examines the manifestation of crafts in the domain of interior architecture in India today. It attempts to understand the position of craft in interior architecture and design in contemporary India. The book establishes five emerging models of practice that prevail when crafts and interior architecture come together. The book is divided into two major sections, one looks at theoretical understanding of the subject and the second evaluates the recent practice of interior architecture later leading to the emerging modes of practice.

Inducted into Library of Parliament, Canada 2016.

The book is a convergence of calligraphy, poetry, and architecture.  It has been reviewed in 2020 by Haiku Canada (see review by Sandra Stephenson in Book Reviews). YouTube carries it's rendition in Hindi "Dehriyon ka Dootavas" by Professor Rajiv Trivedi

Produced by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada in conjunction with poet H. Masud Taj. The original poem was created for display at the Canadian Consulate in Bangalore. Reproduced with the permission of Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Publié par le Ministère des Affaires étrangères, du Commerce et du Développement
conjointement avec le poète H. Masud Taj. Le poème original fut créé pour être exposé au Consulat canadien à Bangalore. Reproduit avec la permission de Sa Majesté la Reine du chef du Canada représentée par le Ministre des Affaires étrangères.

Cross Reference. See also:
"Ver Poets 50th Anniversary: Embassy of Liminal Spaces" in Poetry Section 
"Embassy of Liminal Spaces" in Poetry Section
"Embassy of Liminal Spaces reviewed by Sandra Stephenson" in Book Reviews Section
"ELS Installation" in Calligraphy Section

Aproximación a la 'High Tech Architecture' tomando como punto de inflexión el Centro Beaubourg (Pompidou) de 1971-77, donde cristalizan muchas facetas tecnológicas tanto pragmáticas como utópicas tras la WWII, abriendo nuevas expectactivas en un mundo cada vez más globalizado que demanda una respuesta de "estilo corporativo" para las élites del tardocapitalismo.

El planteamiento parte del estudio de las fuentes de la 'High Tech', desde las más lejanas en el tiempo (Paxton, Contamin/Dutert), pasando por las de la 1ª Modernidad (Le Corbusier, Giedion, Owen Williams, P.Chareau, J.Prouvé), las de la arquitectura de posguerra (Saarinen, Enrenkrantz, K.Roche & J.Dinkeloo, Stirling) hasta las utopías de los años 60 (Fuller, Archigram, R.Banham, Y.Friedman, C.Price) que cristalizan en el concurso del Pompidou ganado por Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers y Gianfranco Franchini en 1971.

A partir de esa obra se estudia la evolución de la Arquitectura 'High Tech' de sus 3 principales valedores (N.Foster, R.Piano y R.Rogers) en diversas etapas, que desembocarán en el cambio de milenio en una vertiente 'Eco-Tech' al introducir la variable de la sostenibilidad y eficiencia energética como justificación técnica de la nueva generación de edificios de alta tecnología, llegando al paroxismo de la "deslocalización" en base a la programación del comportamiento energético del edificio al margen de otro contexto que no sea el bioclimático, ignorando variables tan importantes para la arquitectura como son el paisaje, la cultura local, los hábitos de los usuarios, etc.

contemporary urban inserts in an historically dominant environment.
How does one express the idea of response to the surrounding?
Should this be shown in form of continuity in scale, material, details or colour, visual weight of mass, or texture, or sense of depth or use of planes which is  so common in contemporary? Should the Architecture portray, sense of quite or understatement through subtleties or is doing that in itself a patronizing attitude, a nostalgic approach endowed with unnecessary sentimentality? Should we not respond to energy to equal energy to solidarity with equal solidarity, grace with equal grace? this paper tries to find out answers to some of these questions

This book analyze  how materials, structural  and construction systems  were introduced in Mexico City at the first half of the Twenty Century.  Through the analysis of six high rise buildings built in Mexico City in this period:  the Main Post Office, the National Insurance Company Building, the National Lottery Building, the Latin American Insurance Company Building, the Miguel Aleman Housing Complex and the Science Tower at the National Autonomous University of Mexico main Campus, it can be observed how technology allowed the construction of taller buildings in Mexico City.

Contemporary Architecture in Khartoum have been affected by modernization and globalization, which lead to an architecture that has little attention to the existing local and regional architecture. Globalized architecture resulted in buildings that do not adapt to the changed environmental, social, cultural, economic or/and political context, and so is most of the emerging contemporary Architecture in Khartoum This study was conducted in order to find out if an appropriate context-related regionalistic architecture can be created by the integration of local architectural traditions and universal architectural realities through a Critical perspective; as well as, to gain a better understanding to contemporary residential Architecture in Khartoum using Frampton's theoretical concept of " Critical Regionalism ". Five main points were derived by the author from this concept and were used as an analysis tool and criteria that guided the study. This concept was chosen because it had been a successful worldwide tool, especially in the Third World Countries, which had been used to give a sense of a genuine, authentic, and modern architecture to people, as well as helping in creating architecture that is specifically relevant to their context and environment whilst being part of the world of modern architecture. The study proved that a context-related contemporary residential architecture does exist in Khartoum, and that Critical Regionalism is an applicable approach to be followed by architects in Khartoum. The case studies, although not designed with Critical Regionalism in mind, expressed the five points of Critical Regionalism successfully. The study also showed that the points can provide guidance to develop the existing architecture, as well as help architects understand and evaluate what has been built, and to help what is yet to be built here in Khartoum.

*This Paper was extracted from the Masters Thesis “Critical Regionalism: Studies on Contemporary Residential Architecture of Khartoum – Sudan”

This article describes animal architecture as a multi-disciplinary field of bionic science and organic architecture which is recently popularized as one of the architectural design methods. By reviewing design procedures this study aims to organize a new way of design beyond visual analogies per se. The main question proposed in this paper is then ‘what are the unique features of animal architecture methodology?’ In addition, the paper explores design methodologies to answer ‘how animal architecture method might be used beyond formal, visual and non-functional applications? For years several authors have proposed natural, organic and biological analogies in architecture. Even though designers have always been inspired by nature and employed animal analogies until recent periods, the non-formal aspects of this approach are not clearly addressed yet. While this study refers to organic and natural designs the authors focus more on architecture inspired by animals’ life. In this research biogas as a form of renewable energy derived from animals is described briefly. Furthermore, it is suggested how biogas might be applied as a non-formal analogy in design process. This applied research is conducted qualitatively by using descriptive and analytic methods and the data are broadly obtained from original documents. To verify this method some case studies are compared with the principals of animal architecture. Based on the results, it can be concluded that a new classification of animal architecture is required. This paper shows that animal architecture is not a unique, exclusive method in architecture. In fact, it is a subcategory of analogy method in which analogy happens through animal bodies or their nests. Beyond mere formal and visual approaches, this method may act as a functional approach. For example, the use of biogas in an architectural project might act as an inspiration and source for sustainable design. Moreover, different types of architectural constructions related to animal lives are recommended to be covered by this method.